Ornate room interiors are 'not my thing' when selecting reference photos for art inspiration. But I found a photo of one recently that looked stunning, and I just had to draw it.
To start, the photo was printed on copy paper. I then made a rough line drawing of the major lines/elements on top. Eye-balling that line drawing as a guide, I did a cleaned-up version in my sketchbook. Doing it this way did distort the scale, however.
Using Faber-Castell Polychromos Colour Pencils, the sketch was filled in. Some blending was also done. For example, the green was made with three layers: yellow then light green then turquoise blue.
There were many challenges with this effort. The capitals of the Corinthian columns were difficult because of where they abut the walls in the photo. Their gold ornamentation was hard to distinguish where one capital ended and another began. Another challenge was perspective. This drawn view of the room suggests the viewer is standing on a ladder at a level higher than the stage. (The view in the photo is looking at the stage from floor level at a distance.) Another challenge was working with the floor diagonals (visible in the photo). Plus, I've never done chandeliers before.
What did I learn? Colored pencils were not the best medium to use. They are limited in their ability to blend. The stage curve on the right side doesn't work. Also, the vantage point needs work. In this case, another version could be helpful beginning with re-drawing the line drawing that was the basis for this piece. That said, it was a good first effort drawing this music salon interior.
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